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An American Family History

Priscilla Everett Smith

 
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves,
and, under a just God cannot retain it."
― Abraham Lincoln
 
 
Everett is also spelled Everetm Everette, Everit, and Everitt.
 

A yeoman was a man who owned and cultivated a small farm. He belonged to the class below the gentry or land owners. A husbandman was a free tenant farmer. The social status of a husbandman was below that of a yeoman.

Priscilla Everett Smith was born in 1691 in Hempstead, Queens (now Nassau) County, New York. Her parents were Nicholas and Elizabeth Everett.

Priscilla married Nehemiah Smith. Nehemiah Smith was born in 1677 in Queens County, New York. He was the son of Wait Smith and Phebe Ashman. He was a yeoman.

Priscilla and Nehemiah's children included:
Nehemiah Smith (1708),
Noah Smith (1709),
Nicholas smith (1713),
Rachel Smith (1717),
Phebe Smith (1719),
Priscilla Smith (1722),
Wait Smith (1724), and
Mary Smith (1726).

Queens County, New York is on Long Island. Jamaica was called Rustdorp by the Dutch. It was originally settled by English settlers from neighboring Hempstead. Hempstead was founded in 1644 by emigrants led by Reverend Richard Denton. Jamaica and Hempstead are now in Nassau County.

 

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Eastern Long Island was settled at Southold by English Puritans on October 21, 1640. Western Long Island was Dutch. The Conklins and other related families owned the entire area in the 17th century. The Dutch granted an English settlement in Hempstead (now in Nassau) in 1644. In 1664, the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam became English and was renamed New York.

In the name of God, I Nehemiah Smith, of Jamaica, in Queens County, yeoman, being sick.
I leave to my wife Ann, a negro wench, and her child, and £35; Also 2 cows, 6 sheep, 10 bushels of wheat, 10 bushels of rey, 10 bushels of Indian corn, and meat, and firewood for herself and family, for one whole year. Also such privilage in my house for herself and family as she may have occation for, for one year, and she is to have 3 feather beds and the household goods she brought with her when I married her.

I leave my son, Wait Smith, the use of all lands and dwelling houses, (except as above named) for one year, and all my winter and summer corn, and my wagons, and two horses for one year.

My executors are to sell, within two years, all my dwelling house, and lands, and meadows, by public vendue.

I leave my son Thomas ,£50.
To my daughter Phebe, £10.
To my daughter Rachel, wife of Thomas Read, £10.
T o my daughter Priscilla, wife of William Ludlum Jr. £10.
To my daughter, lately married to Elias Bayles, £13.

I leave to Daniel Smith, Samuel Smith, and Elias Bayles, the Elders and Deacons of the Presbyterian Church of Jamaica, £10. to be put out at interest for ever for maintaining of a standing ministry to the end of time.

Whereas I have given my son, Nehemiah Smith, £70, I give the same to each of my sons, Noah, Nicholas, Jonathan, and Wait Smith.

I give all the rest to all of my sons, and make them executors.

Dated May 14, 1750
Witnesses, Jurian Bloom, Nathaniel Denton, and Benjamin Hinchman.
Proved July 30,1750.

Slavery is an immoral system of forced labor where people are treated as property to be bought and sold. It was legal in the American Colonies and the United States until the Civil War.
 
American colonists continued to use British monetary units, namely the pound, shilling and pence for which £1 (or li) equalled 20s and 1s equalled 12d. In 1792 the dollar was established as the basic unit of currency.
 
     
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©Roberta Tuller 2023
tuller.roberta@gmail.com
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